Published October 19, 2011 - 6:51am
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With the news of Texas A&M already joining our conference (old news) and the high probability of Missouri joining the SEC (new news), let’s take a look outside the box of how these two teams would rank inside the conference right now.
14. Ole Miss
13. Kentucky
12. Mississippi State
Ole Miss has had a terrible year so far, losing all of their conference games and getting slaughtered at Vanderbilt…Kentucky has had an offensive nightmare this year in Lexington, and the Wildcats will be lucky to beat 1AA Jacksonville State this weekend…Mississippi State has had a very underwhelming year in Starkville, and the preseason noise was a lot of hype the Bulldogs could not back up.
11. Vanderbilt
10. Missouri
9. Tennessee
I like the direction of the Vanderbilt program right now, but they are not a contender in year one of James Franklin’s tenure. The Commodores are earning a little bit of respect, though…Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel and the Tiger fan base will not find it as easy to win the SEC as it has been in the Big 12. They will most notably notice it within the offensive and defensive lines, something SEC play dominates…Tennessee has had a disappointing season by far this year, and they have lost all three of their conference games heading into the meat of their schedule.
8. Florida
7. Auburn
6. Georgia
Florida has lost three in a row, and they could go on to lose four in the month of October if they cannot beat Georgia in a week and a half…Auburn has won some close games this year, and it hasn’t been pretty, either. But you cannot discount the fact the Tigers are 3-1 in the SEC…Georgia has won five in a row, and the Bulldogs look to be the possible favorite to win the East, even with the loss to South Carolina.
5. South Carolina
4. Texas A&M
3. Arkansas
South Carolina is the East favorite right now, record-wise. However, their road will now get much tougher without Marcus Lattimore at running back…Texas A&M is ready to be an SEC team. They have a solid defense and offense right now, and they could make some noise in the SEC if it were this season. However, there will be a learning curve, but I’m very interested in learning more about this storied program…Arkansas beat the Aggies head-to-head at Jerry World earlier this season by dominating the Aggies in the second half. There is no doubt the Razorbacks are the third best team in the SEC right now…and it isn’t close.
1b. LSU
1a. Alabama
You could either put Alabama or LSU as No. 1 or No. 2. One of these two teams will be playing for it all in New Orleans.
This is how I think the conference stacks up if Texas A&M and Missouri were a part of it right now.
I totally disagree with this. Look what happened to TAMmy a “weak” Arkansas. No, that’s not a slam against the hogs, but they are a little down with Knile Davis being out.
Neither of these teams is “eastern” so there’s no reason for them to be in the Southeastern Conference.
*against a “weak” Arkansas.
William – if Arkansas is ‘weak’ then the rest of the SEC is very weak. Arkansas is hands down the third best team in the SEC this year, let alone the West. Just because Knile Davis is not in the lineup doesn’t mean this team cannot win big games. Sure they lost to Alabama, but Bama looks to be the best in the country. Arkansas will win out and play LSU with one loss at the end of the year. That game could decide who plays in the Sugar Bowl depending on what happens on November 5th.
Let’s remember that A&M got beat on second half letdowns against a top 10 team in Arkansas and a top four program in Oklahoma State. Neither game was lost by much at all.
MSU and Vandy are better than Missouri. TAM is equivalent to Vandy.
While I do think we’re ranked a little high, please don’t rank our team only on the Arkansas game… (or OSU)
Not for certain what actually happened but we shut down the entire second half of those games! We should have won both of those, but didn’t… Just don’t forget that we dominated both of those games for the first half… They weren’t easy wins for either team.
Tennessee has had a disappointing season this year? Seriously? Tennessee has done nothing but what’s expected. Sure it would be great to pull off an upset or two but not doing so puts them at par, not at disappointment. Losing to LSU and GA does not constitute disappointment in my book.
TxA&M and Missouri are not SEC ready at the moment. TxA&M will be ready first though. But their success depends a lot on how the conference is divided. Currently TxA&M would 5th behind AL LSU Ark and AU in the west. Missouri would be 6th or 7th depending how MSU does that year.
Very dissapointing. I’ll call the loss to Florida a very dissapointing loss. Going into the game, did you not think Tenenssee could beat Florida with the crazy numbers Tyler Bray was putting up? I know the Hunter loss was huge, and now Bray of course, but it has been dissapointing to see how this team has performed so far. Of course it’s my opinon.
Then we have the Georgia game against a down opponent in the Bulldogs. I would venture to say 90% of Tennessee fans thought this team hasn’t performed up to their expectation to start off the year so hot.
Florida could have been a win and Georgia could have been a win. Most Tennessee fans would say in a year the East is so bad, Tennessee should have won both games.
If you look at it by divisions, I think either A&M & Mizzou could win the East this year. As for the West, they’d both finish behind LSU, Bama & Arkansas.
Mizzou is alot like Florida this year, in that their 3 losses have come at the hands of three ranked teams, 2 of which are undefeated (OU/K-State) & one (Arizona State) of which will be playing for a conference championship.
Agreed
I think these rankings are pretty accurate.
I think they’re pretty accurate, also. I might would bump awbrn up a notch or two above the Gamecocks. Texas A&M will fit in fine down the road; although things will seem just a little bit different for a while. And Missouri won’t bother me, even though I’d rather have somebody from over this way to balance out the east. We just don’t like change – just ask our wives!
You have to remember that if Missouri joins the league, Auburn probably becomes an Eastern team. If so, I’d rate the West: 1) Alabama or LSU 2) Alabama or LSU 3) Arkansas 4) Texas A&M 5) Missouri 6) Mississippi State 7) Ole Miss. I’d rate the East: 1) Auburn 2) Georgia 3) Florida 4) South Carolina 5) Tennessee 6) Vanderbilt 7) Kentucky
Mizzou>MSU? I Think not…. TAM? maybe.
Missouri is 3-3, as compared to MSU’s 3-4. One of Mizzou’s losses was by ten points, on the road in Norman, Oklahoma, to the #3 team in the nation. Another of their losses was in OT to Arizona State, in Tempe, Arizona. Unless MSU pulls the upset of upsets against LSU, they’ll meet Ole Miss for the last place position in the SEC West.
…that should read upset of upsets against Alabama….
I Agree with the majority of that…however Id wait until after Nov 12th to give the east to AU if I were you Mr. Smith! Goooo Dawgs! Sic Em!
Auburn has already beaten South Carolina and Florida in the East. You’d have to assume they could beat Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Georgia already has one SEC East loss, and will probably have their second one after next week’s game with Florida. SO, even if Georgia were to win this game, their SEC East record would be 4-2 vs. Auburn’s 5-1.
The fact is that you couldn’t really make a case based on an entire SEC schedule, because IF Auburn were in the East, we don’t know who would be on their schedule for the West, and we don’t know who would be the team replacing Auburn on Georgia’s schedule from the West.
Bama gets the nod at #1 for me over LSU due to lack of integrity at the HC position and all the distrations…..the rest looks pretty fair….But what happens when My Dawgs SHOCK THE WORLD and upset BAMA in the Dome? Whos gonna to be tastin the SUGAR then? can you say MAYHEM? haha…hey, It could happen!
It could happen and the world could end before the game…and we all could fall off the earth…the last two more likely to happen than the first
“could happen”…but keep dreaming…
“Lack of integrity at the HC position…”? OUCH!!!! This from a team whose coach has his players stomp on the opposing teams logos before games, sends the entire team to the endzone to celebrate a touchdown, instructs his team to retaliate against opposing players, etc….
Coach Richt Runs one the cleanest programs in the nation and is well respected across the sec…whereas Les Miles Runs colleges version of the oakland raiders….CMR dismisses any player who is a constant distraction no matter what the talent level is…Miles will take in and play anyone that helps him win. UGA has only incurred 5 uc penalties this season. Think your Au tigers had more than that in the UGA game last year.
Georgia had as many personal fouls in the Auburn game last year as Auburn. In fact, they had two personal fouls called on them in the first quarter alone, with the first personal foul only two plays into the game!!! Auburn’s last personal foul call came after Georgia attacked Nick Fairley, and his teammates rushed to protect him. How they didn’t call a personal foul on Georgia, I don’t know, but before you point any fingers at Auburn for that game, you need to look at the box score and see which team started the personal fouls. Yes, Auburn was flagged as much as Georgia, but the temperament of the game was definitely set by Mark Richt’s players.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/playbyplay?gameId=303170002&period=0